World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris Day 3: Firsau Leads, Salsberg Eyes Back-to-Back
On Monday, Season XII of the World Poker Tour continued with Day 3 of the 2013 bwin World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris at the Aviation Club de France. Day 3 began with 65 players returning to the felt, and by the end of play just 24 remained. Vasili Firsau finished the day at the top of the counts with 756,000 in chips.
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vasili Firsau | 756,000 |
| 2 | Peter Apostolou | 548,000 |
| 3 | Jean-Noel Thorel | 458,000 |
| 4 | Kimmo Kurko | 355,500 |
| 5 | David Hu | 291,000 |
| 6 | Darko Stojanovic | 275,500 |
| 7 | Rony Halimi | 265,500 |
| 8 | Christina Lindley | 237,500 |
| 9 | Guy Halimi | 234,000 |
| 10 | Matt Salsberg | 218,500 |
Firsau (pictured) gained a majority of his chips when he came alive in the 14th level of play and scored the eliminations of many notable players. The first to fall at Firsau's hands was David Peters. Peters found himself all in with KxQx against Firsau's AxJx. Firsau's hand held up and Peters was sent to the rail. Not long after, Firsau scored the knockout of Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot when his pocket nines held through the community cards against the Devilfish's AxKx. Finally, Firsau won one more race situation to send David Boyaciyan home when his 4x4x held against Ax10x.
While Firsau holds the biggest stack heading into Day 4, the name on everybody's lips is that of defending champion Matt Salsberg. Salsberg had a relatively quiet day but still managed to finish with a top ten stack. Salsberg has navigated this exact territory just one year earlier and will certainly be a force to be reckoned with heading into the final 24. He will return with 218,500 in chips.
Firsau and Salsberg only make up a small percentage of the final 24 players. Joining those two back for Day 4 will be Jean-Noel Thorel (458,000), Kimmo Kurko (355,500), Christina Lindley (237,500), Jason Koon (206,500), Byron Kaverman (166,500), Ville Mattila (151,000), Kara Scott (145,000), Marvin Rettenmaier (125,000), Mohsin Charania (102,500), and Micah Raskin (64,000).
The chip leaders of both Day 1a and 1b fell as Day 3 progressed. The first of which, Todd Terry, ran AxQx into Thorel's AxKx before the flop. Terry could not catch up and he was eliminated from play. Day 1b chip leader, Hicham Hilmi was eliminated by both Kara Scott and Gjergj Sinishtaj. According to WPT Live Updates, Hilmi held JxJx before the flop while Scott and Sinishtaj shared outs by both holding AxKx. Despite this fact, an ace rolled off on the flop and Hilmi's chips were chopped by the two surviving players.
Other notable eliminations on the day include Barry Greenstein, Bryn Kenney, Timothy Adams, Tony G, Shawn Buchanan, Joni Jouhkimainen, Roger Hairabedian, Shannon Shorr, and member of WPT Ones to Watch Athanasios Polychronopoulos.
Play will resume for Day 4 at 2:30 p.m. CET where the field will be whittled down to the final table of six. As always, PokerNews will have a full recap of the day's events to follow at the end of the day.
*Photo and data courtesy of WPT.com.
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